Mid-City motel surrounded in search for gunman; man detained

A man has been detained after dozens of police officers surrounded a motel and a second location in a Mid-City neighborhood in their day-long search for a gunman who shot and wounded two officers early Tuesday.

Los Angeles police released few details about the person detained and whether he matched the description of the gunman.

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Officers swarmed the 1600 block of South Highland Avenue after a caller told police they had spotted a suspicious-looking man ducking out of a laundry room.

The neighborhood being searched is a mixed industrial neighborhood with an auto body shop, a storefront psychic and a motel.

The search is the latest development in a day-long hunt for the gunman who wounded two undercover detectives early Tuesday outside the Wilshire Division station. Neither officer was seriously injured.

So far, police have questioned and released 10 people but still have not apprehended a suspect.

The massive dragnet has been underway since about 4:30 a.m., when an unknown gunman attacked two undercover burglary detectives in an unmarked vehicle as they were waiting for the gate to open into the station parking lot.

The suspect fired at them from behind, shattering windows in the car and fled on foot.

Police had scaled back the manhunt until the latest reported sighting.

"This was a blatant attempt to assassinate two of the people who protect this community," police Chief Charlie Beck said at a police commission meeting Tuesday morning.

At its height, the manhunt involved about 200 officers, a SWAT team and air and canine units from the LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.